


Buggy and Her

by Felicity_The_Cat



Series: Jagged Grins that hide her Sins [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Child Abuse, Childhood Memories, Dayshift at Freddy's Fangame, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25524568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felicity_The_Cat/pseuds/Felicity_The_Cat
Summary: There was only once in her life that Vanny had a 'pet'.
Series: Jagged Grins that hide her Sins [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753153
Kudos: 20





	Buggy and Her

Tiny hands clutched onto a small, wet rag tightly, making sure not to drop it as she rushed up the old wooden stairs to her bedroom. The sun was setting, casting the entire house in a soft orange glow. The child closed her bedroom door as quietly as she could possibly manage, then walked over to the foot of her bed where a small shoebox awaited. Inside the box lay a small creature. Its big brown eyes were wide with terror, and its small form shook as it tried to press itself against the small blanket that had been placed in the box for it. A tiny amount of blood had gotten on the blue blanket, but its caregiver didn’t mind. Blood could wash out, and the animal’s comfort was more important than a small stain.

“Calm down, calm down,” Came the child’s soft voice. It was barely above a whisper, but she knew that the rabbit heard her by the way it flinched before freezing up. The rabbit was young, but it knew that the child was a potential threat despite being the one to pull it from the jaws of a barn cat that had been just a little too quick.

“I need to clean your leg,” She purred as she reached out for it, much to the rabbit’s dismay.

It remained completely still as its bloody leg was taken into small, pink hands, and the warm rag was rubbed across its crusty fur. It flinched and wiggled in discomfort, but it made no move to bite the child prodding at it ever so gently. It was over as soon as it started, and the rabbit pulled its back leg under its body. “There,” the girl hummed with a soft, pleased smile.

With a little wiggle of its nose, the rabbit turned to examine the lettuce being placed next to it.

This was the third day in this box; the third day that it had been offered fresh vegetables and had its wounds tended to.

“I think you’re getting better, Buggy.” The child beamed as she tucked a short strand of brown hair behind her ear. The rabbit had mellowed out over the past few days. He had stopped thrashing about as much, and it was nice to see him finally warming up to her.

The rabbit offered her no response and instead moved around slightly in its box. It began to nibble at its lettuce with a flick of its ear, but the way it moved was sluggish and let the child know that it still wasn’t feeling its best. “You’ll get better,” She hummed with certainty, to which the rabbit simply flattened its ears and continued nibbling.

* * *

“Vanessa,” A voice rang out through the house, bouncing off the barren walls.

Vanessa froze from where she sat at the kitchen table, pencil in hand as dread rushed through her small body. She said nothing but quickly stood, abandoning her drawing at the table along with her gnawed pencil. The taste of it was still in her mouth, but she didn’t mind the way it lingered.

She rushed through the kitchen as fast as she could and into the living room. The curtains were closed, blocking the early morning light out. The only source of light was the glow of the TV.   
Vanessa clutched at the door frame in silence, knowing better than to speak first.

A strong smell of cigarette smoke filled the air, and she cringed at the smell.

“Come here. Watch this with me, won’t you?” 

Vanessa said nothing but walked into the den, creeping behind her father’s chair to avoid blocking his view. She was small enough that squeezing between it and the wall wasn’t too difficult, but she did her best to keep from bumping the chair in the process.

Once she was past, she sat next to the chair on the carpet, getting comfortable despite her disinterest in the show that was currently on. The couch sat just beside her along the wall, occupied only by pillows and a few blankets that needed to be put away elsewhere. Vanessa’s small hands began to pick at the tan carpet as discreetly as she could manage. She found it much more entertaining than watching the cowboy movie that was playing, despite her love for horses. They always got shot too much in her dad’s movies, and she hated watching it.

Vanessa froze as a large hand was placed on top of her head, ruffling her hair briefly before reaching for another cigarette on the coffee table in front of the TV.

Vanessa remained still, just staring at the cowboys on the screen as they yelled at each other, and just like always, a horse fell dead.

* * *

Noon rolled around, and Vanessa had managed to slip out of the den after her father had fallen asleep in his chair. It wasn’t surprising, but she was just happy to be able to return to doing what she pleased. A ten-year-old could only handle so many boring movies a day, anyway, and It was time to feed Buggy, so she made quick work of shoving some lettuce in her pocket before heading up to her room. She knew the exact spots to step on the dark wooden steps to prevent making them creak, and she ascended silently. She was practiced, and it showed. Vanessa slipped into her bedroom and lowered herself down to her knees at her bed. She reached under the bed and gently pulled the shoebox out with a soft smile.

The lid slowly lifted, and Buggy barely acknowledged her. She placed the lettuce down, tended to his leg, and then sat back to watch him. His ears were flattened and he seemed somewhat disinterested in the food she’d given him. He hadn’t finished his lettuce from yesterday, though. Vanessa made a mental note that she may have been overfeeding him. He wasn’t that big, after all. He almost fit perfectly in the palm of her hand, but she was doing her best not to hold him until he was properly healed and feeling better. He was going to get bigger, just like the bigger bunnies she had seen hopping around outside. His fur was various shades of milky brown, and she enjoyed stroking it oh so gently, and as the days went on, he was flinching less and less.

He was warming up to her, and Vanessa knew that he’d be too big for his box soon enough.

Buggy was a growing bunny, and she intended to keep him hidden from her father. 

He knew that she had pried the animal from the cat, but she had put him under the impression that she had released it on the edge of their property. If he knew that she had the rabbit in the house, she would have known. It was worth the threat of punishment to nurse the rabbit back to health, in her opinion. A few weeks without her pencils were worth a rabbit’s life, she had decided as she had smuggled the small animal inside.

Buggy wiggled his tiny nose, shifted on his blanket, and let out a heavy sigh as Vanessa’s small hands came to rest on his head, tracing over the small white mark on his forehead.

Vanessa smiled as she gently pet the rabbit, enjoying the calm that her room provided. There was no sound of snoring or gunshots from her father’s westerns. It was just her and Buggy.

* * *

He was cold. Tears rolled down Vanny’s face as she cradled her limp rabbit against her chest, shaking like a leaf as she sucked in loud, broken gasps. Her face was red from crying, and she could barely breathe. She was shivering despite the warm summer air rolling in from her open window. Why had this happened, and how? She had fed him and given him plenty of water. She was cleaning his wounds. She had saved him from the cat, and he had been eating just fine… 

Vanny cradled the stiffening rabbit against her chest as she sobbed, coating her face and floor in wet tears that practically glimmered in the sunlight. Had she somehow caused this?

Was it her fault that he had died through the night? 

The sound of creaking floorboards would have normally made her tense, but Vanessa didn’t even bat an eye when she heard her father creeping up the stairs and halting at her room.

Her sobs had given her away, and she knew that he was staring her down. Even if she hadn’t heard him, the overwhelming stench of alcohol would have given him away.

“What n’the hell are you cryin’ about?” he hissed out in a hoarse voice.

The child didn’t reply, not for lack of wanting, though. She couldn’t speak; she could barely suck in air between her sobs. The sound of his heavy work boots made Vanessa open her eyes, and she stared up at her father through her blurry eyes. He saw the rabbit; there was no way he hadn’t. He was obviously already drunk despite not having gone in for work yet, and the scowl he gave her made her feel so small and helpless.

“I thought I told you to let that thing be, Vanessa.” He growled out, clearly unamused, annoyed, and angry. Vanessa sucked in another shaky breath and held onto Buggy’s lifeless body just a little tighter. It wouldn’t have been enough to hurt him if he could still feel pain, but she didn’t want to let the rabbit go. There was a long, uncomfortable pause before her father held out his hand. “Give it here.”

Vanessa curled in on herself, only holding onto Buggy tighter.

 _“Vanessa.”_ Her father growled out. With another shaky intake of breath, she shook her head, denying him yet again. He was losing patience with her, but he had to leave for work.

Punishment for her disobedience would come later.  
“You killed it, and now you won’t even let me put it back outside?” He asked in a cold tone.

Vanessa opened her eyes, then. She looked up to her father in horror, unable to fathom what he had just said. “W...What?” She shakily questioned. Her father stared down into her disgusting eyes and narrowed his. “You killed it, Nessie.” He huffed.

Vanessa’s gaze slowly drifted down to the floor, and she stared off at nothing as he continued.

“He would have been fine if you let him go, you know. You killed him by holding onto him.”

Her father’s words echoed in her head endlessly as her fingers wrapped around the rabbit’s lifeless body just a little tighter.

“He was… he was hurt.” She tried to reason with herself aloud, unable, and unwilling to entertain the idea that she had killed the poor thing.

“He was.” Her father agreed with a solemn nod. “And you killed him.”

Vanessa shook her head in denial yet again and looked down at the rabbit as she tried to calm her breathing. She was still shaking, but she felt like her body was going numb.

“I didn’t kill him.” She insisted in a pathetic whine. The man looming above her let out a laugh she knew all too well; a laugh that made her nauseous.

“You _did_ kill him. You suck the life out of everything you fucking touch.”

Vanessa cowered in shame at those words, but she no longer argued. Had… _Had she killed it?_

“It better be gone by the time I get home.” Her father growled as he made his way across her room, shutting the curtains that were allowing sunlight to flood into the room.  
“And you’ve lost the window for a month.”

A long silence filled the room, and Vanessa sniffled over the small creature in her arms.

“Get it out of here.” Her father repeated before leaving her alone.  
It was just Buggy and her.


End file.
